How To Be A Welcoming Church

It seems that when churches aren’t talking about how to attract newcomers, they’re talking about how to welcome the newcomers once they’ve arrived. In order to aid this discussion, the church sofa presents 10 things that a Church can do to be more welcoming:

Have all the chairs pointing to the entrance. Therefore anyone who arrives late can see ALL the smiling faces!

Have children’s groups, but in the interest of security don’t tell people where they are.

Ask newcomers to stand during the service and introduce themselves.

Ensure that people only enter via the entrance hall, this way they get the welcome experience that they won’t get if they go any other way.

To ensure you look like a welcoming church, ensure people gather and chat around the welcome desk. Newcomers will see this as they slip past and think that your church is incredibly welcoming.

Have stairs leading to the creche. Parents are used to dealing with push chairs and stairs anyway.

Whilst performing the peace encourage all to greet new comers with a “Holy Kiss”.

Randomly change the time and venue of your main Sunday meeting. People love change.

Doing something a little different this Sunday morning? Don’t worry about explaining it to people if they walk in late. They’ll just have to talk to people to work out whats going on.